Battle of the Networks: Holiday Edition

   For many years, Hallmark has held the title of having the best holiday movies. They go all out to come up with many creative plots, find the right cast, gain millions of viewers and constantly succeed. In fact,”last year Hallmark was the highest-rated and most-watched cable network for the entire fourth quarter among women ages 18 to 49 and 25 to 54.”(Deseret News). And they’re showing no signs of slowing down.

   This year, the Hallmark network is airing 40 new holiday movies. However, in recent years the competition has increased. Streaming services like Netflix and Disney Plus are threatening to take Hallmark’s crown. This year, Netflix aired its first holiday movie in October, getting a head start over Hallmark. Netflix is aiming to put a twist on the formula of finding love/family and ditching the big cities. Their Holidate movie contained many explicit scenes, a drastic change from Hallmark’s family friendly content. Netflix is pulling out all the stops, but time will tell how truly successful it will be. 

   Further adding to the competition is Disney+. The site is airing movies such as Godmothered, High School Musical: The Holiday Special, On Pointe and Arendelle Castle Yule Log. Disney+ originally launched in November 2019 and has found massive success with over 60 million subscribers. While Disney+ has had overall success, they haven’t exactly ventured into holiday movies as much. 

   Despite this, Junior Maci Castillo believes Disney movies reign superior. She says “Disney in my opinion has the best Christmas movies. With classics like The Nightmare Before Christmas, Good Luck Charlie: It’s Christmas and Home Alone on Disney+, it’s the overall winner by far.” In comparison, freshman Kiley Irizarry prefers Hallmark movies. She stated “Definitely Hallmark because their Christmas movies are so stupidly corny, it makes for so much fun. They also all have the same exact plot so it’s nice to just turn off your brain and enjoy the Christmas spirit.” It’s clear that the competition will only continue to grow for Hallmark and time will ultimately tell who is TRULY VICTORIOUS.